206 ILEX. [CLASS IT. ORDLR in. 



Tree ; flowering in May and June. 



Few trees have been more admired and variously cultivated from 

 the earliest period, than the Holly, also known by the names of Hulver, 

 Hulferl, and Holme. Numerous very beautiful varieties are obtained 

 by cultivation, or accident, as to the shape, size, and a more or less 

 spinous state of the leaf, as well as in its variation of white or spotted 

 colours. When the Dutch fashion of horticulture prevailed in this 

 country, hedges of Holly were planted and kept well clipped in various 

 forms. The celebrated Evelyn, it is said, planted a hedge of it at Say's 

 Court, Deptford, (at the suggestion of Peter the Great, who resided at 

 his house when he worked in the dock-jards at Deptford,) four hundred 

 feet long, nine feet high, and five feet broad ; and he asks, " Is there 

 under heaven a more glorious and refreshing object of the kind, than 

 such an impregnable hedge, glittering with its armed and varnished 

 leaves, the taller standards at orderly distances, blushing with their 

 natural coral." 



No plant forms better or more desirable fences than the Holly, and 

 few will bear the shears so well ; and when a hedge is once formed, 

 perhaps it is the least expense of any other kind to keep it in repair ; 

 but it is of tardy growth, and makes very slow progress for a number 

 of years after it is planted. The wood is hard, white, fine-grained, and 

 takes a good polish. It is used for a great variety of purposes, espe- 

 cially by turners and the makers of mathematical instruments. 



The bark affords a tenaceous substance, which, when separated by 

 bruising, boiling, and fermentation, forms the substance known by the 

 name of birdlime. 



The leaves, as well as the bark, are bitter, and have been used in 

 the cure of coughs and intermittent fevers ; and it appears, from expe- 

 riments made by Dr. Rousseau, of Paris, as detailed in the Transac- 

 tions of the Medico-Botanical Society of London, that they contain a 

 new vegetable principle called Ilicine, which is equally efficacious with 

 Quinine and Peruvian bark. The remarkable difference observable 

 between the leaves in the lower part of the tree having their edges 

 strongly armed with slout spines, and those on the upper part having 

 their margins quite smooth, is very singular; it would appear to be 

 a means of protection against the injury of cattle, and is the reason of 

 the Holly being considered, in the emblematic language, the token of 

 foresight. This peculiar circumstance in the leaves has not escaped 

 the notice of the poets, and is thus spoken of by Dr. Southey : 



O reader ! hast thou ever stood to see 



The Holly tree 1 



The eye that contemplates it well, perceives 



Its glossy leaves 



Order'd by an Intelligence so wise, 



As might confound an atheist's sophistries.. 



